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PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS 

LIBRARY 


Health  -  Education  Series,  No.  27 

NERVE-WASTE 

BY 

GEORGE  VAN  NESS  DEARBORN,  M.D. 

Professor  of  Physiology 

Tufts  Medical  and  Dental  Schools 

Boston 


Nerve-health  is  simply  the  surplus 
of  nerve-force  income  over  nerve- 
force  expenditure 


Published  by   (he 

Health-Education    League 

8  Beacon  Street 
BOSTON.  MASS. 


OFFICERS 

President,  DUDLEY  A.  SARGENT,  M.D. 
Vice-President  .  H.  S.  POMEROY,  M.D, 
Secretary  .    ,  Rev.  GEORGE  H.  GATE 

Treasurer  ALFRED  L.  DARROW 


DIRECTORS 

CHARLES  M.  GREEN,  M.D. 
HENRY  J.  BARNES,  M.D. 
HERMAN  F.  VICKERY,  M.D. 
Mrs.  J.  D.  K.  SABINE,  M.D. 
Rev.  CHARLES  FLEISCHER 
ROBERT  W.  HASTINGS,  M.D. 
MILTON  J.  ROSEN AU,  M.D. 
GEORGE  V.  N.  DEARBORN,  M.D. 


Copyright,  1918,  by  Health-Eddcatiow   Lbaoc 


NERVE-WASTE 

Not  the  least  of  the  colossal  and 
wholly  needless  wastes  for  which  our 
descendants  will  blame  us  heartily  is 
the  waste  of  nervous  energy.  There 
are  two  ways  especially  in  which  this 
matter  may  be  viewed,  one  or  the  other 
of  which  will  appeal  to  nearly  every- 
one, namely,  the  money-equivalent  and 
the  happiness-equivalent  of  nerve  force. 

THE  MONEY-VALUE  OF  HEALTHY  NERVES. 

The  conditions  are  too  complex  to 
allow  the  calculation,  at  present,  of 
the  money-value  of  a  strong  and  thor- 
oughly efficient  nervous  system,  but  it 
certainly  is  very  high,  almost  as  high 
as  that  of  health,  and  oftentimes  far 
higher  than  that  of  the  legs  or  fingers 
about  which  the  courts  have  nowadays 
such  clear  ideas. 

Every  fundamental  process  of  both 
mind  and  body  each  moment  of  our 
lives   is    absolutely    dependent    on   the 


nervous  system ;  no  one  can  do  any- 
thing at  all  without  it,  either  for  his 
loved  and  dependent  ones,  or  for  him- 
self. Efficiency  of  every  conceivable 
kind  immediately  depends  upon  its 
proper  action,  all  the  time.  The  gross 
action  of  the  trunk  and  arms  by  which 
the  laborer  wields  his  pick,  not  less 
than  the  subtle  cunning  by  which  the 
painter  applies  his  brush,  or  Ysaye 
moves  his  bow,  is  always  dependent 
upon  the  nervous  system  in  a  most  lit- 
eral sense. 

Now  the  large  money-valuation  of 
such  indispensable  factors  of  health  is 
no  whit  the  less  real  because  not  yet 
computable  exactly  in  dollars.  The 
money-equivalent  of  nerve-waste  is  not 
less,  nor  less  important,  because  unap- 
praiseable ;  the  waste  is  not  less  real 
because  subtle,  and  incurable  by 
surgery. 

THE  HAPPINESS-VALUE  OF  HEALTHY  NERVES. 

More  precious  than  money  to  many 
men  and  women  is  happiness,  and  hap- 
piness is  wholly  dependent  in  the  long 
run  on  the   general    normality   of   the 


I 


nervous  system,  chief  connector  as  it  is 
of  body  and  mind.  Pleasant  feelings 
as  contrasted  with  unpleasant  are  rep- 
resented chiefly  by  the  healthy  activi- 
ties of  certain  brain-processes,  about 
which  we  are  learning  more  every  year, 
but  which  it  would  be  difficult  to 
discuss  suitably  here. 

NERVE-WASTE    LOWERS   THE   BODY'S    RESISTANCE 
TO  DISEASE. 

The  lowering  of  the  tone  of  the  ner- 
vous system  has  a  most  powerful  effect 
for  harm  and  danger  in  its  depression 
of  the  bodily  powers  of  resistance  to 
disease-attacks.  The  mode  of  action 
of  this  important  nerve-influence  on  the 
blood  also  is  too  complex  to  be  here 
described,  but  its  great  importance 
must  be  clear  to  everyone  who  has  ob- 
served such  relations  at  all  in  himself 
or  in  his  associates.  Infections  come 
chiefly  when  we  ''get  run  down." 
This  expression  means  largely  a  low- 
ered balance  of  nerve-wealth,  too  little 
of  it  being  left  to  maintain  the  blood's 
basal  powers  of  resistance  to  disease. 
Here  is  a  danger  of   continued  nerve- 


waste  that  is  extremely  often  a  matter 
of  weeks  of  illness,  large  financial  ex- 
pense, and,  of  course,  often  of  death 
itself.  Could  there  b  e  suggested 
stronger  incentives  to  nervous  health 
than  these  ? 

CREDITS  IN  THE  NERVE-FORCE  ACCOUNT. 

The  chief  means  or  factors  in  the 
maintenance  of  strong  and  active  nerve- 
cells  and  nerv^e-fibers  in  the  brain  and 
spinal  cord  are  about  four  in  number : 
adequate  sleep  ;  adequate  nourishment ; 
adequate  muscular  exercise;  and  ade- 
quate chemical  stimulants  produced 
in  the  body.  When  these  four  are 
ample  (but  not  excessive)  the  nervous 
system  is  maintained  for  seven  or  eight 
decades  an  efficient  working  machine, 
a  money-making  mechanism,  and,  other 
things  being  equal,  the  sagacious  indi- 
vidual who  so  maintains  it  enjoys  his 
life  to  its  uttermost,  as  the  natural  re- 
ward of  his  intelligence  and  care. 
Happiness  then  and  earning  power  (a 
reputed  chief  means  thereto)  certainly 
rest  mainly  upon  efficient  nerves. 


SLEEP. 

Of  the  four  mentioned  factors  in  the 
income  of  our  nervous  force,  adequate 
sleep  perhaps  is  of  the  greatest  practi- 
cal importance.  The  great  majority  of 
people  who  are  really  busy  probably 
get  less  sleep  than  they  need,  while 
what  they  do  get  is  often  of  an  inferior 
quality,  that  is,  not  true  sleep,  not 
''  sound." 

Perhaps  the  main  reason  why  we 
sleep  too  little  is  the  general  (excessive) 
use  of  brain-stimulants :  coffee,  tea, 
cocoa,  tobacco,  alcohol,  all  or  one  or 
more  in  a  day.  Partly  because  at 
times  they  have  enjoyed  good  sleep  im- 
mediately after  taking  these,  many  un- 
medical  persons  are  firmly  convinced 
that  they  are  not  kept  awake  by  these 
stimulants,  when,  in  reality,  as  a  rule 
they  are.  Of  course,  under  some  con- 
ditions one  may  sleep  in  spite  of  them, 
for  complex  reasons  that  no  one  can  as 
yet  fully  explain. 

Throngs  of  sedentary  people  espe- 
cially are  kept  from  feeling  normally 
sleepy  at  the  proper  time  by  these  stim- 
ulants of  the  insistent  current  of  ideas 


and  feelings.  Thus  the  physiological 
bedtime  is  ignored  in  favor  of  an  arti- 
ficial hour  dictated  by  these  drugs, 
more  or  less  injurious,  just  mentioned, 
and  by  others  less  commonly  used,  but 
still  more  harmful  in  the  long  run,  to 
nightly  rest. 

Another  reason,  certainly,  for  the 
all  too  frequent  deficiency  in  sleep, 
both  in  quantity  and  in  quality, 
is  the  unnaturally  high  nervous 
pressure  at  which  many  of  us  Ameri- 
cans live,  although  to  do  so  is  neither 
rational  nor  hygienic.  Undue  and 
unreasonable  indulgence  in  evening  en- 
tertainments is  a  third  important  pre- 
ventable cause  of  our  common  lack  of 
sufficient  sleep. 

WHAT  SLEEP  DOES  FOR  US. 

The  reason  why  abundant  good  qual 
ity  sleep  is  absolutely  essential  to  all 
who  would  "live  long  and  prosper, 
and  be  happy  meanwhile,  is  as  simple 
as  it  is  important :  It  is  only  during 
sleep  that  the  exceedingly  minute  and 
delicate  nerves  have  a  good  chance 
to  repair  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  over 

6 


busy  day.  Without  this  nightly  repair 
the  nerve-cells  gradually  lose  their 
normal  vigor  and  size,  and  the  basis  of 
''nervous  prostration"  and  of  other 
mental  conditions  even  w^orse  is  laid, 
ready  for  the  unusual  strain  or  bodily 
illness.  If  it  comes,  we  may  promptly 
have  a  nervous  breakdown,  requiring  a 
year  or  two  to  mend,  or  an  infection  of 
some  sort,  perhaps  even  more  danger- 
ous to  life  and  the  essential  happiness. 
In  children  and  youth  sleep-time  is 
the  period  of  bodily  growth  as  well  as 
the  occasion  of  the  replacement  of  the 
food-supply  in  each  nerve-cell  which 
the  day's  activity  usually  has  quite  used 
up. 

The  outside  aspect  of  this  sleep  de- 
ficiency comes  to  us  even  more  insist- 
ently from  the  statistics  of  the  lunacy 
commissions  and  from  reports  of  nerve- 
sanatoria.      One    is    inclined    to    think 
\  that  even  the  wretched  divorce  courts 
I  would  be  less  over-crowded  were  these 
I  unrested   brain-cells    returned  to  their 
*  primitive   natural    vigor.      No    homily 
on  "the  pace  that  kills,"  however,  nor 
eulogy   on  "the  simple  life"  (though 


great  the  universal  need  of  both)  is 
contemplated  here,  but  only  a  simple 
enumeration  of  the  chief  of  the  condi- 
tions that  keep  too  many  of  us  Ameri- 
cans, thoughtlessly  or  by  compulsion, 
from  sleeping  our  proper  and  needful 
physiological  allowance. 

TOO  LITTLE.  SLEEP. 

It  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  life  and 
death  (although  every  physician  must  re- 
alize hovv^  very  many  lives  are  shortened 
by  needless  nerve-fatigue) ,  not  so  much  a 
quantitative  affair  of  mortality  statistics 
as  one  of  quality — the  satisfaction  in 
living.  No  moral  philosopher  can  get 
behind  or  beneath  this  as  the  greatest 
good  of  our  mortal  existence.  We  all 
seek  it,  and  can  by  no  hook  nor  crook 
help  seeking  it,  as  the  forest  trees  seek 
the  open  sunlight  above.  That  one, 
and  perhaps  the  chief  cause  of  this 
quantitative  defect  in  our  happiness, 
not  measureable,  but  none  the  less  im- 
measureable,  is  too  little  sleep  (the  de- 
ficiency accumulating  slow^ly  year  by 
year),  becomes  more  and  more  obvious 


8 


to  those  who  best  understand  the  ex- 
treme delicacy  and  the  complexity  of 
the  underlying  bodily  conditions. 

THE  ADEQUATE  AMOUNT  OF  SLEEP. 

The  number  of  hours  of  sleep  needed 
by  each  individual  is  easily  told.  The 
figures  can  be  relied  upon  for  the  ma- 
jority of  people ;  occasionally  adult 
persons  are  met  with  who  need  more ; 
and  now  and  then  one  who  really  needs 
only  less  tries  to  convince  the  public 
that  they  are  like  him  in  this  important 
respect — contrary  to  fact.  Grammar- 
school  pupils  (none  should  ever  study 
out  of  school !)  require  on  the  average 
at  least  ten  hours  of  real  sleep  (say 
from  nine  p.  m.  to  seven  a.  m.)  ; 
high-school  pupils  and  youths  from 
thirteen  to  seventeen  years  of  age  need 
scarcely  less  sleep  than  ten  hours  ;  from 
eighteen  years  on  most  people  demand 
from  eight  to  nine  hours  of  real  sleep 
daily. 

FRIENDS  AND  FOES  OF  SLEEP. 

Drugs  to  promote  sleep  should  never 
be   taken    during   health,   for  the   rest 


that  they  secure  always  has  factors  of 
nerve-waste  rather  than  of  nerve-saving. 
Hygienic  means  to  secure  sleep  are 
always  ready  at  hand,  and  will  be 
found  efficient  unless  there  be  some  un- 
derlying cause  of  the  insomnia  curable 
only  by  medical  means  of  one  kind  or 
another.  A  sharp,  brisk  walk  in  the 
open  air, — long  enough  to  fatigue  a 
little, — a  hot  liquid  lunch,  a  warm  bath, 
complete  active  muscular  relaxation  (a 
habit  easily  acquired),  singly  or  to- 
gether will  combine  with  freedom  from 
worry  to  put  almost  any  normal  person 
to  sleep  as  Nature  intends.  Then  one 
will  awaken  with  something  at  least  of 
a  feeling  of  enthusiasm  for  the  work  of 
the  day.  If  this  be  lacking,  or  if  there 
be  a  real  distaste  for  it,  either  the  work 
or  the  rest  is  wrong. 

ADEQUATE  NOURISHMENT. 

The    second    factor    of    nerve-health 
mentioned  is  adequate  nutrition  for  the 
exceedingly  delicate  and  subtle  elements 
of  the   nervous  system  (termed  by  the  ^ 
physiologists    the    neurones) .     Of    ex- 


lO 


treme  frailness,  minuteness  and  deli- 
cacy, yet  extending  everywhere 
throughout  the  whole  body,  these  struc- 
tures, all  together  commonly  called 
''  the  nerves,"  require  an  abundance  of 
the  proper  kind  of  food  in  the  blood 
that  comes  to  them  in  such  very  large 
amount.  They  require  no  special  diet 
(students'  commons,  however  scientifi- 
cally conducted,  no  longer  furnish  the 
brain  workers  an  excess  of  fish,  because, 
"  like  the  brain,  it  is  rich  in  phos- 
phorus"), nothing  exceptional,  unless 
it  be  an  abundance  of  fat  somewhat 
above  the  average  individual  consump- 
tion in  America. 

There  are  now  so  many  usefully  sim- 
ple accounts  of  what  different  kinds  of 
people  engaged  in  different  amounts 
of  muscular  work  should  eat  that  no 
one  need  lack  information  as  to  a  diet 
suited  to  his  needs.  The  publications 
of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture  devoted  to  this  subject 
are  of  much  practical  use,  and  many 
of  them  are  to  be  had  for  the 
asking. 


II 


ADEQUATE  MUSCULAR  EXERCISE. 

Much  muscular  exercise  (especially 
of  the  kind  that  needs  and  uses  little 
thought  or  care)  keeps  the  nerve-cells 
supplied  with  the  necessary  abundance 
of  blood  ever  freshened  and  renevs^ed, 
and  invigorates  the  whole  apparatus  by 
which  alone  we  can  do  things  ;  namely, 
the  nerve-muscle  mechanism. 

Civilized  man  has  lost  his  natural  in- 
dicator for  the  need  of  sleep  :  namely, 
abundant  muscular  exercise  pure  and 
simple,  unmarred  by  accompanying 
nerve-fatigue.  We  are  apt  eternally  to 
forget  that  our  brains  were  evolved 
chiefly  as  organs  by  which  our  muscles 
may  be  controlled,  and  that,  lacking 
abundant  outdoor  exercise,  their  nour- 
ishment   may   be    deranged. 

NATURE'S  GOOD  EXAMPLES. 

We  are  apt  to  call  Towser  and  Tabby 
*'lazy"  animals,  but  no  physiologist 
doubts  that  they  live  more  hygienically 
in  respect  of  sleep  and  exercise  than  do 
their  human  masters  or  mistresses,  al- 
though many  of  these  domestic  pets, 
too,    that    are    city-livers,    get    only   a 

12 


small  fraction  of  the  exercise  they 
really  require.  But,  like  their  wild 
brothers  in  the  forest  and  on  the  plains, 
they  would  like  to  exercise  much.  In 
the  cities  well-to-do  multitudes  live  and 
die  without  experience  of  the  "pure 
delight "  of  unadulterated  muscle-fa- 
tigue, and  of  the  sudden  and  deep  sleep 
that  normally  follows  a  day  of  purely 
muscular  work.  Here,  then,  is  one 
reason  why  some  of  us  sleep  too  little 
and  too  ill,  save,  perhaps,  when  in 
camp  on  our  vacations  in  the  wild. 
Should  not  these  experiences  teach  us 
something?  Should  not  they  tell  us, 
for  example,  that  if  we  lead  sedentary 
lives^  we  must  force  ourselves  to  take 
systematic  outdoor  exercise  of  some 
kind^  year  in  and  year  out^  during 
life. 

ADEQUATE  INTERNAL  SECRETIONS. 

The  important  glands  which  produce 
various  chemical  stimulants  of  the 
[nerve-cells  have  indispensable  value  in 
maintaining  the  normal  nervous  system, 
but  cannot  be,  nor  need  they  be,  dis- 
i cussed  here. 

13 


NERVOUS  EXPENDITURE:  DEBITS 

It  is  to  the  other  side  of  the  vital 
ledger,  to  its  debit  values,  that  we  now 
turn,  for  it  is  the  main  object  of  this 
particular  Booklet  to  point  out  to  busy 
and  oftentimes  thoughtless  folk  the  sad 
and  frequent  and  often  permanently  dis- 
abling injuries  coming  from  the  extrav- 
agant use  of  this  vital  income  of  nerve- 
strength,  more  precious  far  than  any 
income  payable  by  gold  or  check. 

This  nervous  account  is  always  a 
running  account ;  that  is,  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  the  considerable  accumu- 
lation of  unused  assets  of  nervous 
energy.  If  not  regularly  used,  this  form 
of  current  wealth  spoils  and  wastes  not 
only  itself,  but  its  possessor !  The 
nearest  that  any  man  can  come  to  the 
storage  or  hoarding  of  this  form  of 
treasure  is  the  acquirement  of  a  fixed 
habit  of  systematic  muscular  exercise 
out  of  doors ;  and  the  interest  this 
habit  pays  is  most  gratifying,  besides 
being  compounded  at  very  frequent  in- 
tervals, and  with  many  a  bonus  (of 
enjoyment). 


H 


SUITABLE    WORK    IS    ECONOMICAL    OF    NERVE- 
STRENGTH. 

Before  we  consider  briefly  some  con- 
spicuous modes  of  nerve-waste,  it  is 
important  that  a  most  vital  and  prac- 
tical fact  be  clearly  understood  ;  namely, 
that  strictly  routine  work,  even  hard 
work,  so  long-  as  it  be  balanced  by  a 
fitting  support  of  nerve-force  income^ 
does  no  harm,  although,  of  course,  such 
work  expends  much  nerve  energy. 
The  employment  of  nervous  energy, 
mechanical  in  action,  for  work  involv- 
ing no  emotionnl  strain  of  any  kind, 
would  be  comparable  to  the  using  of 
an  income  for  food,  shelter,  fuel,  cloth- 
ing, and  the  necessary  amount  of  recre- 
ation,— a  prime  necessity  and  a  very 
condition  of  life.  Unaccompanied  by 
injurious  phases  of  nerve-expenditure, 
some  few  of  which  are  now  to  be  indi- 
cated, suitable  work  is  a  substantial 
pleasure  to  the  normal  individual,  and 
makes  for  nervous  health  and  happi- 
ness as  does  nothing  whatever  else.  The 
suggested  confusion  between  such  in- 
vestment, normal  expenditure,  and  ex- 
travagance constitutes  one  of  the 
stumbling-blocks  to  a  general  under- 
standing of  the  whole  matter. 

15 


WORRY  AS  NERVE-WASTE. 

Pre-eminently  notorious  among  the 
common  modes  of  nerve-extravagance 
and  waste  is  worry.  This  is  the  sheerest 
wasteiulness  in  all  our  lives — expendi- 
ture with  nothingand  worse  thannothing 
in  return.  Worry,  when  needless,  is 
the  very  stock-gambling  of  extrava- 
gance in  vital  forces  without  possibility 
of  a  *'bull  market"  or  a  **bear  mar- 
ket '*  to  recoup  in, — dice-throwing  with 
the  dice  loaded  always  against  you.  In 
the  terms  of  our  discussion,  every  hour 
spent  in  worrying  about  some  evil, 
whether  real  or  imaginary,  is  a  large 
and  wholly  needless  check  drawn  on 
your  bank-balance  of  bodily  and  mental 
strength.  If  one  borrow  trouble  the 
rate  of  interest  that  one  has  to  pay  is 
rank  usury. 

WHAT  IS  WORRY? 

We  may  define  worry  as  the  habit  of 
wasting  the  soul  and  the  body  on  evils 
that  have  not  come.  Many  of  its 
victims  might  properly  define  it  in  the 
same  terms  that  General  Sherman  used 
in  regard  to  war, — brief,  but  at  once 
philosophic    and    expressive.       James  le 

i6 


Russell  Lowell  never  wrote  anything 
more  true  than  his  statement  that  *'the 
misfortunes  hardest  to  bear  are  those 
that  never  come,'*  for  the  human  im- 
agination running  riot  is  very  apt  to 
make  things  seem  worse  than  kindly 
Nature  often  allows  them  actually  to  be. 

Worry  is  described  by  the  physiolo- 
gists as  essentially  a  form  of  more  or 
less  chronic  fear, — fear  that  something 
evil  is  going  to  happen.  Fear,  of 
course,  does  not  well  become  the  strong 
man  or  woman  ;  although,  as  everyone 
who  is  grown  up  knows  too  Avell,  some 
worries  cannot  be  avoided  in  this  trou- 
bled life  (fear  of  the  illness  and  death 
of  friends,  for  example) .  These  must 
be  met  as  is  fitting  to  the  brave. 

Since  the  valuable  physiologic  work 
of  Austin  and  Sloan  on  the  nerve-cells 
of  rabbitSj  we  know  the  actual  effects 
which  fear  produces  in  the  nervous  sys- 
tems of  animals,  and  we  know  that  the 
effect  is  veiy  serious  and  widespread  in 
the  body.  Worry  must  produce  this 
same  effect,  and  often  to  a  greater  de- 
gree even  than  a  period  of  terror,  which 
of  necessity  can  last  but  a  short  time,  so 
exhausting  is  it  to  the  brain. 

17 


FEELING  vs.  LOGIC. 

Such  facts  (and  they  are  really  facts) 
ought  to  be  more  preventive  of  extrav- 
agance in  w^orry  than  any  sort  of  mere 
logic  v^^ould  be.  The  ordinary  anti- 
vv^orry  argument  of  course  reads :  If 
vsrhat  you  worry  about  can  be  prevented 
or  cured,  prevent  or  cure  it  rather  than 
suffer  so  ;  if  it  cannot  be  cured  or  pre- 
vented, why  waste  energy  and  time  suf- 
fering because  of  it?  Excellent  logic, 
certainly,  but  woefully  incompetent,  as 
most  of  us  well  know,  to  restore  the 
wasting  brain-cells,  or  to  abolish  un- 
aided this  worst  of  bad  habits. 

The  reason  why  so  few  worriers  adopt 
the  frequently  expressed  advice  not  to 
worry  is  that  worry  has  the  emotional  ba- 
sis just  now  suggested,  that  it  is  2i  feel- 
ings with  a  tremendous  motive  power 
behind  and  beneath  it,  hard  to  be  con- 
trolled. We  need  not  pause  to  describe 
in  detail  the  physical  and  mental  effects 
and  conditions  of  fear  and  worry ; 
suffice  it  to  say  that  its  depressing  influ- 
ence arises  and  is  felt  in  well-nigh 
every  portion  of  the  body, — bowels, 
stomach,    heart,    blood-vessels,    lungs, 

i8 


, 


brain,  muscles  and  nerves, — and  there- 
fore unfits  its  victim  for  every  free  and 
useful  act. 

The  motive  powder  of  much  of  our 
human  activity  is  emotion  or  feeling, 
and  those  emotional  states  that  depress 
the  nerve-centers  tend  to  paralyze  ac- 
tion, lessening  at  the  same  time  our 
desire  to  do  things,  and  our  powder  of 
doing  them  well  when  we  try, 

THE  HAPPINESS  FACTOR. 

Here  it  is  that  happinesscomesinto  the 
matter.  Multitudes  of  men  and  women 
learn  sooner  or  later  that  not  always,  by 
any  means,  as  we  have  often  heard,  is 
the  race  to  the  swift,  or  the  battle  to 
the  strong ;  often,  very  often  indeed, 
one  inclines  to  think  that  both  go  to  the 
happy ^ — lords  of  the  world. 

Saleeby  puts  it  well,  although  per- 
haps too  strongly,  when  he  says : 
"There  is  no  human  end  but  happi- 
ness, high  or  low.  Its  one  absolute 
negation  is  neither  poverty  nor  ill- 
health,  nor  material  failure,  nor  yet 
starvation — '  he  that  is  of  a  merry  heart 
hath  a  continual  feast.'     The  one  abso- 

19 


lute  negation  of  happiness  is  worry  or 
discontent.  A  prosperous  society,  con- 
sisting of  strenuous  worried  business 
men,  who  have  no  time  to  play  with 
their  children,  or  listen  to  great  music, 
or  gaze  upon  the  noble  face  of  the  sky, 
or  commune  with  the  soul  .  .  .  such 
a  society  may  be  as  efficient  as  a  bee- 
hive, as  large  as  London,  and  as 
wealthy,  but  it  stultifies  its  own  ends, 
and  it  would  be  better  not  at  all." 

Not  only  work,  but  rest,  likewise,  is 
really  efficient  only  when  the  soul  is 
care-free ;  this  freedom  from  worry,  as 
Saleeby  has  so  importantly  pointed  out, 
is  the  very  essence  and  the  quintessence 
of  every  real  holiday.  There  is,  too,  a 
fine  philosophy  that  makes  of  the  hard- 
worked  life  a  holiday,  that  refuses  to 
be  worried  whatever  come,  trusting, 
with  Tennyson,  that  '*all  is  well." 

SOME  OF  THE  HARM  THAT  WORRY  DOES.       ^ 

But  it  is  not  only  work  and  rest  alone 
that  are  interfered  with  by  the  bad 
habit  of  worrying — it  disturbs  also 
some  of  the  most  fundamental  condi- 
tions of  good  health.     No  mental  cir- 

20 


cumstance  so  decidedly  harms  digestion 
and  assimilation,  or  causes  so  commonly 
the  nervous  dyspeptic  habit.  This  in 
itself  means  a  large  group  of  harmful 
influences,  little  short  of  actual  disease. 
Here  we  have  one  of  the  "  vicious  cir- 
cles" the  doctors  talk  about, — worry 
impairs  digestion,  which  in  turn  leads 
to  more  worry  through  the  injury 
to  the  delicate  structures  of  the  brain 
and  nerves. 

This  general  condition  more  than 
anything  else  is  the  cause  frequently  of 
the  premature  loss  of  beauty  in  women 
and  of  youthfulness  in  men,  for  both 
men  and  women  age  rapidly  and  become 
wrinkled  betimes  when  unhappiness 
and  the  dyspepsia  of  hurry  and  worry 
are  the  demons  of  their  passing  days. 
Insomnia,  also,  accounts  for  some  of 
this,  and,  as  we  have  already  pointed 
out,  worry  is  one  of  insomnia's  most 
frequent  causes. 

Worry  is  distinctly  a  matter  of  habit, 
and  one  which,  like  most  bad  habits,  is 
far  more  easily  acquired  than  aban- 
doned. It  is  largely  a  matter  of  will- 
I power  whether  it  be  allowed  to  take 
(possession  of  the  individual,  body  and 
(soul,  or  not.  21 


CURABLE  PHYSICAL  CAUSES  OF  WORRY. 

The  causes  of  our  worry  are  often 
more  purely  physical  than  we  suppose. 
Mind  and  body  are  in  the  closest  rela- 
tion to  each  other,  and,  strangely 
enough,  sometimes  conditions  which 
seem  to  us  to  be  purely  mental,  and 
perhaps  even  beyond  our  control,  so 
that  we  worry  about  them,  turn  out, 
like  our  other  depressed  moods,  to  be 
based  on  simple  physiological  derange- 
ments, temporary,  and  easily  curable. 
A  brisk  walk  in  the  open  air,  a  visit  to 
a  vigorous  and  jovial  friend,  even  a 
cathartic,  frequently  sweeps  the  worri- 
some cobwebs  out  of  a  troubled  mind. 

We  cannot  afford  to  forget  this  thor- 
ough-going interdependence  of  our 
bodies  and  our  minds,  for  it  will  often 
lead  us  into  simple  but  substantial 
habits  of  good  hygiene,  wholly  incom- 
patible with  the  persistence  of  many  of 
the  trivial  worries  in  our  souls.  If 
genius  be,  as  has  been  said,  in  part 
*'an  infinite  capacity  for  taking  pains," 
let  us  all  be  geniuses  (and  so  happier 
than  most)  in  taking  care  that  needless 
petty  worries  do  not  spoil  any  of  our 
rapidly  passing  days  or  hours  !  No  one 
can  afford  this  habit,  for  it  costs  toe 
much  of  our  life. 

22 


EMOTIONALITY  AS  NERVE-WASTE. 

Other  modes  of  waste  in  nerve-values 
when  combined  are  of  much  impor- 
tance, although  together  probably  less 
harmful  to  life  efficiency  than  worry. 
One  of  these  other  ways  of  extrava- 
gance is  the  habit  of  excessive  emotion 
pleasant  or  unpleasant,  for  even  an 
excess  of  joy  will  tire,  and  that  unduly, 
the  nervous  centers.  This  circum- 
stance, it  is  likely,  depends  primarily 
on  the  very  large  proportion  of  the 
nerves  and  muscles  that  are  strongly 
active  in  any  well  defined  emotion  or 
feeling,  and  this  is  so  whether  gross 
muscular  movements  be  discernible  or 
not.  Muscle  constitutes  nearly  half  the 
mass  of  the  body,  and  practically  all  of 
it  is  set  in  some  degree  of  activity  as  a 
factor  of  joy  or  grief  or  love  or  fear, 
and  with  it  most  or  even  all  of  the 
nerves  are  working  more  or  less  ac- 
tively. 

The  emotional  aspect  of  the  mind 
is  a  most  important  phase  of  it,  and 
its  high  tension  oftentimes  makes  rapid 
inroads,  far  more  rapid  than  is  ap- 
preciated at   the   time,   on   our   bank- 

23 


account  of  nerve-energy,  on  the  nerv^ous 
"reservoir,"  as  McDougall  and  Cla- 
parede  call  it.  "A  short  life  and  an 
over-emotional  one  "  would  be  a  motto 
far  less  expedient  for  most  men  and 
women  than  a  long  life  and  a  less  emo- 
tional one — for  the  nerve-cells  wear 
out! 

Not  only  strong  emotion,  intense, 
but  relatively  brief,  but  unpleasant 
feeling  of  lesser  degrees  tires  the  nerv- 
ous system  at  a  wholly  undue  rate. 
Bickerings  and  even  mild  quarrelings, 
continued  feelings  of  resentment  for 
injury  to  one's  egotism,  jealousies  of 
low-grade  intensity,  and  all  such  de- 
pressing feelings,  lower  the  nerve- 
balance,  because  they  are  apt  to  be 
long  continued,  or  frequent,  or  both. 
Unpleasant  emotion  of  every  sort  lowers 
the  vitality  in  proportion  to  its  inten- 
sity and  duration^  just  as  pleasant 
emotions  pay  great  dividends  of  vital 
strength  (and  of  happiness,  too  !). 

THE  HABIT  OF  DISORDER  AS  NERVE-WASTE. 

Every  keen  observer  of  human  be- 
havior distinguishes  at  a  glance  the  dis- 

24 


orderly  person  from  the  orderly,  but 
not  all  of  them  realize  that  order,  be- 
sides being  attractive  (when  not  over- 
done), is  eminently  economical  of 
nerve-energy.  This  principle  applies 
alike  to  bodily  and  to  mental  orderli- 
ness. Take,  for  example,  the  routine 
formulae  required  of  telephone  opera- 
tors and  see  the  immense  saving,  not 
only  of  time,  but  of  nerve-strength  on 
the  part  of  the  young  v^omen  sitting 
before  the  sw^itch-boards. 

VALUE  OF  CONCENTRATION. 

Another  kind  of  mental  order  is 
closely  related  to  the  principle  of  the 
concentration  of  attention,  so  important 
in  education.  To  concentrate  fully  the 
attention  means  to  attend  to  only  one 
thing  at  a  time — that  one  thing  then 
receiving  your  entire  energy  and  care. 
This  principle  is  that  on  which  the 
nervous  system  acts  in  controlling  our 
bodily  movements,  and  is,  therefore, 
the  only  normal  mode  of  action  for  our 
minds  as  well.  Frequent  change  and 
rest^  but  your  entire  force  of  mind  on 


25 


every  fortiori  of  your  work  or  your 
flay  seems  to  be  the  ideal  condition  of 
nervous  economy  and  of  efficient  effort 
as  well.  ''  One  thing  at  a  time,  and 
that  done  well,  is  as  good  a  rule  as  any 
can  tell,"  is  a  motto  as  scientific  as  it  is 
ancient,  for  it  makes  not  only  for 
success,  but  for  a  large  bank-balance  of 
nerve-force.  No  habit  which  children 
can  acquire  or  adults  practice  is  more 
essential  to  true  success  than  this  one, 
for  with  this  habit  it  is  difficult  for  a 
person  to  be  an  actual  spendthrift  of 
his  nerve-strength,  since  every  expen- 
diture brings  him  in  return  something 
a  little  worth  while,  be  it  only  the 
practice  in  mental  power. 

EXTREME  MONOTONY  AS  NERVE-WASTE. 

This  form  of  prodigality  in  nervous 
force  and  endurance  applies  especially 
to  life  in  general  in  the  country  districts, 
and  to  all  occupations  too  narrow  and 
unvaried  to  be  natural.  This  wasteful- 
ness of  nerve-health  is  firmly  based  on 
physiologic  and  psychologic  principles 
of  the  most  primary  kind  and  im 
portance,  on  those  especially  underlying 

26 


fatigue   and  the   blood   supply  of   the 
different  parts  of  the  body. 

Owing  to  the  technicality  and  com- 
plexity of  these  relations,  however,  it  is 
not  fitting  to  do  more  in  this  place  than 
to  suggest  its  importance  and  to  insist 
that  normality  of  the  nerves  is  depend- 
ent on  frequent  change^  leading  to  a 
re-creation  of  nervous  efficiency.  No 
school  and  no  shop  realizes  practically 
as  yet  the  great  importance  of  this 
matter  from  a  purely  economic  point 
of  view,  not  to  mention  the  human 
side,  quite  as  important  in  the  end. 

OVER-STIMULATION    OF    THE    SENSES    AS    NERVE- 
WASTE. 

Another  conspicuous  way  in  which  a 
variable  amount  of  our  capital  of 
nerve-force,  especially  in  the  cities,  is 
needlessly  dissipated,  is  by  the  useless 
over-stimulation  of  the  senses.  For 
practical  purposes  the  senses  most  con- 
cerned in  this  for  the  majority  of  people 
are  hearing  and  vision,  the  former  espe- 
cially. The  nervous  income  is  wasted 
unduly,  and  far  beyond  general  under- 
standing, in  short,  by  too  many  loud 

27 


and  disturbing  sounds  :  fire  alarms,  lo- 
comotive whistles,  automobile  horns, 
carts,  rough  and  hurried  milkmen,  bells, 
vibrating  trolley-car  trucks,  etc.,  almost 
without  end. 

These  and  other  loud  sounds  keep 
the  nervous  system  irritated,  for  most 
of  them  are  purely  noises  with 
nothing  pleasant  about  them,  save 
to  the  boyish  irresponsibles  that  pro- 
duce or  allow  the  m  .  Moreover, 
these  startling  noises,  besides  prevent- 
ing sleep  and  over- stimulating  the 
nerves,  are  producing  deafness  in  mul- 
titudes of  us,  the  ear-specialists  say,  and 
this  partial  deafness  serves  as  an  impor- 
tant secondary  source  of  nerve-strain. 

In  a  w^holly  similar  way  parts  of  our 
cities,  and  many  of  our  playhouses, 
etc.,  are  over-lighted  by  over-bright 
and  flashing  signs,  and  the  eyes  and 
nerves  strained  by  moving  pictures, 
flash  lights,  etc.  To  the  numerous 
nervous  systems  that  are  none  too 
strong,  these  and  such  as  these  are 
more  important  for  harm  than  they 
may  at  first  thought  seem  to  be. 


2S 


ADDITIONAL  CREDITS. 
We  have  all  heard  over-busy  Amer- 
icans, victims  of  ^'Americanitis,"  say 
that  they  would  ^ ^rather  wear  out  than 
rust  out."  They  forget  that  a  living 
animal  body  is  a  self-rep  airing  mech- 
anism. On  this  account  there  is  no 
reason  why  it  should  wear  out,  save 
that  inevitable  far  deeper  necessity 
inherent  finally  in  the  self-limitation 
of  every  living  individual. 

"THE  GOSPEL  OF  RELAXATION." 

Philosophers  and  psychologists  of 
many  types,  American  as  well  as  Ori- 
ental, have  preached  strenuously  the 
"gospel  of  relaxation,"  as  William 
James  terms  it.  *'It  is  an  invaluable 
part  of  our  Hindoo  life,"  said  to  him 
a  visitor  in  Cambridge,  ''to  retire  for 
at  least  half  an  hour  daily  into  silence, 
to  relax  our  muscles,  govern  our 
breathing,  and  meditate  on  eternal 
things."  Every  Hindoo  child  is 
trained  to  this  from  a  very  early  age. 

And  the  wise  James  observes:  "I 
felt  that  my  countrymen  were  depriving 
themselves  of  an  essential  grace  of 
character.      How  many  American  chil- 

29 


dren  ever  hear  it  said  by  parent  or 
teacher  that  they  should  moderate  their 
piercing  voices,  that  they  should 
relax  their  unused  muscles,  and,  as  far 
as  possible,  when  sitting,  sit  quite 
still  ?  Not  one  in  a  thousand,  not  one 
in  five  thousand.  Yet  from  this  reflex 
influence  on  the  inner  mental  states, 
this  early  over-tension,  over-motion, 
and  over-expression  are  working  us 
grievous  national  harm."  There  can 
be  no  doubt  at  all  that  the  principle 
underlying  this  statement  is  of  great 
practical  moment  in  the  effective 
balance  of  our  nerve  strength. 

GOING  TO  CHURCH. 

Some  accomplish  the  desired  relax- 
ation (but  too  seldom)  by  a  weekly 
hour  in  church,  and  here  is  one  more 
practical  reason  added  to  the  conven- 
tional reasons  why  more  of  us  should 
go  to  church  and  why  many  who  go 
should  go  more  often — to  relax  the 
undue  and  harmful  tension  of  over- 
tense  nerves  and  muscles  and  thoughts 
and  feelings. 


30 


LIFE  LOVETH  A  CHEERFUL  LIVER. 

It  would  require  a  set  of  volumes  to 
suggest  adequately  the  scientific  basis 
of  another  important,  but  more  gen- 
eral, contribution  to  the  nerve-force 
account,  namely  cheerfulness^  good 
humor,  joy.  Common  uncritical  ob- 
servation is  enough  to  shov^  everyone 
how  much  more  smoothly  and  tirelessly 
the  vital  mechanism  works  when  oiled, 
so  to  say,  with  this  inexhaustible 
lubricant;  and,  moreover,  the  stimu- 
lating influence  extends  outwards  and 
about  to  all  beholders — as  if  from  a 
beautiful  woman  dancing. 

GOOD  HUMOUR  vs.  THE  GROUCH. 

We  are  beginning  now  to  understand 
the  physiology  of  this  matter  so  im- 
portant in  the  efficient  happiness  of 
the  world's  workers,  and  to  realize 
that  this  belief  of  all  the  long  ages  of 
human  history  is  not  a  tradition  merely 
or  only  a  whimsical  dream  but  a  warm, 
true,  scientificyizc^.  Some  day  perhaps 
a  grouch  will  be  a  misdemeanor  and 
the  groucher  legally  a  nuisance.  In 
the  perfect  unity  of  mind  and  body 
cheerful  mental  living  is  only  another 
aspect  of  normal  bodily  activity.  No 
one  surely  can  afford  to  deprive  him- 

31 


self  and  his  fellows  about  him  of  the 
great  rewards  of  good  humor.  It  feeds 
and  fans  the  vital  flame  in  every  part 
and  makes  of  the  life-experience  a 
treat  worth  while,  laden  from  birth  to 
death  with  an  interest  and  variety  of 
which  the  unhappy  man  can,  for  the 
moment  at  least,  scarcely  dream.  Joy 
is  compound  interest  for  the  joyful — 
and  dividends  to  all  applicants  who 
have  taken  stock  in  it,  even  for  a 
moment. 

CONCLUSION, 

Such,  incompletely  enumerated  and 
inadequately  expressed,  are  some  of 
the  elements  of  the  physiology  and 
hygiene  of  the  nerves.  One  side  of 
the  balance-sheet,  as  it  has  been  sug- 
gested here,  is  not  more  important 
than  the  other.  It  is  the  effective 
working  balance  that  counts,  and  this, 
obviously,  is  as  much  a  matter  of 
adequate  income  as  of  wise  expendi- 
ture. One  can  waste  his  substance  and 
his^^living"  for  all  practical  purposes 
as  surely  by  improper  attempts  to  earn, 
as  by  extravagance  in  spending. 
Nothing,  in  short,  that  man  can  attend 
to  is  more  important  for  his  happiness 
and  eflficiency  than  a  wise  considera- 
tion of  both  these  phases  of  nerve-force 
as  a  means  to  nerve-opulence,  the 
prime  condition  of  a  useful  and  happy 
life.  G.V.N.D. 

3* 


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By  Charles  M.  Green,  M.D. 

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No.  30.     Cancer 

By  Robert  B.  Greenough,  M.D. 
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By  E.  G.  Brackett,  M.D. 

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NOV  8 


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